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Formations of Control in Underground Venues
I think about the sheer authenticity related to the experience of enjoying punk music in a basement. Admittedly, authenticity is a social construction, but in the moment – Wow! This shit is for real!...
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A Series of Mistakes: Nullsleep and the Art of 8-bit Composition
8-bit rendition of NYC, by Alex Bond. Three weeks ago I got to meet one of my musical heroes. I went to an 8-bit game design workshop at NYU focused around programming games for developing nations. It...
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Como Now?: Marketing “Authentic” Black Music
With all the excitement over the new release of Mavis Staples’s You Are Not Alone (Anti-, produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy), I can’t help but be skeptical of the outpouring of Indie love for the album,...
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Sounding Out! Podcast Episode #2: Building Intimate Performance Venues on the...
The podcast is (or, can be) an intimate performance venue on the internet because it allows you to whisper into the ears of your fans. It allows you to grow close to communities of listeners. And...
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Pentecostal Song, Sound, and Authentic Voices
"Altar Call" by Richard Masoner) I grew up the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ in the Northeast. . .New Jersey, to be exact. And it was this particular religious and cultural world that gave me an...
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Garageland! Authenticity and Musical Taste
First show with The Carpetbaggers! @The Manor. Today’s post is a bit of a confessional. Reflecting on Andreas Duus Pape’s post a few weeks back, Building Intimate Performance Venues on the Internet, I...
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In Defense of Auto-Tune
Lil Wayne, I Am Still Music Tour, Photo by Matthew Eisman I am here today to defend auto-tune. I may be late to the party, but if you watched Lil Wayne’s recent schizophrenic performance on MTV’s VMAs...
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“Everyone I listen to, fake patois. . .”
It may seem a little crazy to take Das Racist seriously. Their songs are deep in the realm of the ridiculous, but I can’t help but feel that “Combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell” is a commentary on how the...
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Tape Hiss, Compression, and the Stubborn Materiality of Sonic Diaspora
In an article for Pitchfork, music critic Adam Ward reminisces about digital music files that sound as if they’re “being played through a payphone,” and calls the extreme compression of the low-quality...
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